Arellano

Declaring one of the world's most powerful drug gangs "dismantled," Mexican authorities announced the capture of Tijuana drug mobster Benjamin Arellano Felix on Saturday while confirming the death of his brother Ramon in a police shootout last month. The blows to the Tijuana cartel are significant because it is thought to control a quarter of all cocaine entering the United States from Mexico. Both brothers were on the U.S.

A surprising victory by Belmont High's Rene Arellano in the City Section cross-country championships at Pierce College on Saturday led to a not-too-surprising outcome in the race for the team title. Arellano won the three-mile race in 14 minutes 58 seconds and Belmont placed five runners among the top 12 to easily win its eighth championship in the past nine seasons. The Sentinels totaled 32 points; defending champion Taft was second with 115, two points ahead of Garfield.

Los Angeles' two biggest universities have announced their main graduation speakers, with USC opting for its retiring president and UCLA taking a more unusual, but potentially more amusing, bet on a witty chronicler of Mexican American life. The keynote speaker for UCLA's College of Letters and Science commencement on June 11 will be Gustavo Arellano, author of the popular "¡Ask a Mexican!" column in the OC Weekly and a book by the same name, officials announced Thursday. Arellano earned a master's in Latin American studies at UCLA in 2003.

A high-ranking member of the violent Tijuana drug cartel has been arrested in the Los Angeles area after a yearlong wiretap investigation that resulted in the indictment of nine people and the seizure of about four tons of cocaine and $15 million in cash, authorities announced Monday.

In an effort to increase pressure on the brutal Tijuana drug cartel, U.S. law enforcement officials have prepared an indictment against one of its alleged kingpins and are considering offering a hefty reward for his arrest, U.S. law enforcement officers said Monday. A senior U.S.

One of Mexico's most wanted drug-trafficking suspects was captured without a shot fired over the weekend, authorities said Monday, the latest in a series of high-profile arrests by Mexican law enforcement using intelligence supplied by U.S. anti-narcotics agents. The arrest of Gilberto Higuera Guerrero at a safe house in Mexicali in Baja California on Sunday morning is a major victory in President Vicente Fox's campaign against major drug cartels.

Monica Garcia finished far ahead of other candidates in Tuesday's special election for an open seat on the Los Angeles school board but did not tally enough votes to take the spot outright. Garcia, who earned 47% of the votes, was endorsed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. She has indicated an openness to a mayoral takeover of the school district, which Villaraigosa has pushed strongly.

A reputed top aide to the Arellano Felix drug mafia in Tijuana pleaded guilty Thursday to federal trafficking charges in U.S. District Court in San Diego, authorities announced. Everardo Arturo Paez Martinez, 34, admitted his role in a trafficking enterprise and in conspiring to launder money in connection with smuggling nearly four tons of cocaine from Mexico between 1988 and 1996.

FATHER: Florencio Arellano, 41, nicknamed "Nonong," or quiet , helps with deliveries and repairs machines in the family garment business. MOTHER: Maura Arellano, 43, petite, speaks at machine-gun speed, typical of the hard-driving Filipina in a matriarchal society; she really runs the factory. CHILDREN: Son Christopher Arellano, 16, a high school senior who says he wants to be an engineer but really would like to be a pilot.

They are handsome and ruthless, generous with their plentiful cash but pitiless to those caught poaching in their territory. They have outlasted--or outlived--anyone who has come after them. Such is the growing legend of the Arellano Felix brothers, the reputed overlords of a multimillion-dollar cocaine empire known as the Tijuana cartel, whose brutal embrace reaches from Baja California to the Mexican capital.